• Bath SU does pay £30,000 pounds a year for NUS UK membership. SUs that pay as little as 300 pounds will be some of the smallest and least financially secure SUs in the country- for instance, we have some members who represent fewer than 100 students and whose financial support is in the hundreds of pounds, whereas Bath SU has an income of around 6 million pounds and around 20,000 students.

• Bath SU can absolutely run campaigns by themselves and we actively encourage SUs to continue to do the fantastic work that they already do locally. But when it comes to national campaigns (which are often needed to fix some of the systemic, nation-wide issues facing higher education), having a national campaigning body is vital. The voice of over 4 million students carries a lot more weight than 20,000 students when speaking to Government. 

We have a track record of impact in the last few years:

• Securing the reintroduction of maintenance grants after they were scrapped back in 2015

• Securing the highest increase to maintenance loans in a generation, putting £414 back in to the pockets of individual students

• We saved the Graduate Route Visa in 2024 when the previous Government tried to scrap it

• We secured votes at 16, after being part of the initial Votes at 16 coalition formed in 2003

• We won vital amendments to the Renters' Rights Act, such as limiting upfront rent payments to a month and better regulating the student rental market so that the October rush of accommodation dropping is no more

• We mobilised over 50 SUs in responding to the EHRC's problematic guidance on trans people off the back of the Supreme Court ruling

• We have secured an inquiry into student loans after putting intense pressure on the Government